Former CM Sakhlecha, denied ticket, quits BJP

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Virendra Kumar Sakhlecha resigned from the party and filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate to contest the Jawad seat in the November 25 assembly election in the state.

After being denied a ticket to contest the election, Sakhlecha reached Jawad where his supporters allegedly pressed him to jump into the fray as an independent candidate.

The Samajwadi Party later said Sakhlecha would contest as its candidate. The party's disciplinary committee chairman and former member of Parliament Kalyan Jain said party president Mulayam Singh Yadav himself would honour Sakhlecha at a public meeting in Bhopal tomorrow.

While announcing his resignation, the veteran politician accused the BJP leadership of adopting a prejudiced approach in the selection of party nominees. He said he had been unjustly denied a ticket.

Talking to reporters at Jawad, he claimed that many other party members like him had filed their nomination papers as independents. Reports from Bilaspur, Chhindwara and some other places suggest BJP leaders resent the way tickets have been distributed.

In Bilaspur, some party office-bearers resigned while in Chhindwara, a former BJP legislator from Parasia, Dr Ramji Mastakar, quit the party to join the Ajay Bharat Party floated by Maharshi Mahesh Yogi.

Sakhlecha said he had expected BJP president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre would give tickets to candidates who could win instead of indulging his personal biases. "Injustice was done to such aspirants,'' he said.

Sakhlecha said the party had undermined its own interests by distributing tickets in a prejudiced manner.

Several supporters of Saklecha have also quit their posts in the BJP and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.